July 8th, 2008 at 10:54 pm
The AP reports that the director of the National Institute of Mental Health wants to study chelation as a treatment for autism.
The article gets one fact wrong right off the bat and shows a little bit of hostility:
The treatment removes heavy metals from the body and is based on the fringe theory that mercury in vaccines triggers autism—a theory never proved and rejected by mainstream science. Mercury hasn’t been in childhood vaccines since 2001.
In nice bold print, the CDC web site states that some influenza vaccines have had thimerosal after 2001. “Rejected by mainstream science” is going to need a citation or two. “Never proved” is a far cry from rejected.
“I don’t really know why we have to do this in helpless children,” said Ellen Silbergeld of Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School of Public Health, who was invited to comment on the study to a review board of the national institute.
The kids do have parents, I assume.
We’ve done DMSA chelation, and personally it’s not my favorite treatment. We couldn’t collect enough urine to test positive for metals. Fecal tests always came back inconclusive. The agents are fairly expensive, too.
I have mixed feelings about the feds getting involved. On the one hand they had to realize they took a serious hit in their credibility rejecting things they had no evidence against, and now they’re at least interested in conducting studies. On the other hand our tax dollars were paying professional deniers who had incentive to bury results they didn’t like, and there’s no guarantee that new government studies are going to be any more objective. I would really like some private independent firms to handle some of these duties.
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July 9th, 2008 at 12:45 pm
The article explicitly states, “Mercury hasn’t been in childhood vaccines since 2001.” Note, please, the adjective: “childhood.” This is making explicit reference to those vaccines administered exclusively during childhood. The influenza vaccine is NOT a “childhood vaccine.”
The author’s fact was indeed correct. And the simple fact that autism diagnosis rates have remained high in the near-total absence of thimerosal since 2001 indicates (STRONGLY indicates) that there is not, and never has been, a correlation between mercury and autism.
July 9th, 2008 at 2:25 pm
From the CDC’s publication MMWR dated 09/21/07:
1). In 2004, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) recommended annual influenza vaccination of children aged 6–23 months
(2). Two doses, at least 4 weeks apart, were recommended to fully vaccinate children aged <9 years who were receiving influenza vaccination for the first time
This says to me that flu vaccines are for children, too. As in all vaccinations, they are recommended, not required. I personally have seen the effects of multiple vaccination on a well developing child. Perhaps that is the crux, the number of vaccines given at once and the prematurity of the child. I know for a fact, that was the case in our family! I realize that parents are searching for a cause but with the increasing incidences of autism, we should all be very concerned about finding some common ground. If you believe that it can’t happen to you, you are only fooling yourself.
July 9th, 2008 at 4:15 pm
I didn’t say that flu vaccines weren’t for children; I said they weren’t *exclusively* for children.